Sarah Jane O’Connor ’22

826boston.org, Roxbury, MA

The brave, bold, and thoughtful teachers that I’ve been fortunate enough to learn from over the past few years of my life have inspired me to pursue a career in education. I am eager to teach either English or American history at some point in my future, most likely at the high school level. However, I find the theories and practices underlying the realities of the classroom setting to be fascinating and I have been daunted by questions about why education exists and functions as it does in the United States. Whose stories do we choose to tell in the classroom? Whose stories do we tell when we talk about the classroom? What are the real, visceral consequences of these often-
incomplete stories?

When exploring options for summer internships for this year, I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do. I considered teaching full-time, and also looked at legal internships and publishing internships. However, when I discovered 826 Boston, I realized that it was possible for me to work both as an educator and in the publishing field. I jumped at the chance to apply for a position as a Publishing and Programs Intern with 826 Boston, and eagerly accepted the job.

826 Boston is a regional chapter of 826 National, an educational non-profit organization that aims to support and inspire traditionally underserved students, primarily through fostering a love of writing. 826 Boston has established Writer’s Rooms—comforting spaces where students can come to write, both formally and informally with the support of professional writing teachers—in a range of schools in the greater Boston area. The organization also helps young writers become published authors through publishing anthologies of student work.

As the Publishing and Programs Intern, I worked closely with a team of three staff members who focused on publishing student work and facilitating summer programming, which included virtual youth writing workshops and college essay boot camps for high school students. I helped to copy-edit and format “We Hope You’ll Visit,” a travel guide to Dorchester written entirely by middle school students. I also prepared for the upcoming College Essay Boot Camps by creating a student guide to college and scholarship essay writing. I created a database of scholarships for students in the Greater Boston area, selected sample essays, wrote tips and tricks for the essay writing process and more, with the goal of offering high school students every resource they might need as they undertook the college essay process. Later in the summer, the youth and high school writing workshops began, and much of my time was spent as the primary logistical liaison for all of these workshops, which required coordination and communication between the 826 Boston team, volunteer tutors, students, and parents.

Working remotely was challenging, not simply because I struggled to focus at home, but because I really longed for in-person interaction with my coworkers and students. However, I am going to continue working for 826 Boston this fall during my semester off from Williams. I am excited to get to know my coworkers and students even better, while simultaneously building experience throughout the fall. I am deeply grateful for the support of the Kraft Family and the ’68 Center for making this summer possible.